I. Technical Field
This invention pertains to telecommunications, and particularly to the supply (e.g., initial or replacement) of software at nodes of a radio access network (RAN).
II. Related Art and Other Considerations
In a typical cellular radio system, mobile terminals (also known as mobile stations and mobile user equipment units (UEs)) communicate via a radio access network (RAN) to one or more core networks. The user equipment units (UEs) can be mobile stations such as mobile telephones (“cellular” telephones) and laptops with mobile termination, and thus can be, for example, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or car-mounted mobile devices which communicate voice and/or data with radio access network.
The radio access network (RAN) covers a geographical area which is divided into cell areas, with each cell area being served by a base station, e.g., a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks is also called “NodeB” or “B node”. A cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio base station equipment at a base station site. Each cell is identified by a unique identity within the local radio area, which is broadcast in the cell. The base stations communicate over the air interface (e.g., radio frequencies) with the user equipment units (UE) within range of the base stations. In the radio access network, several base stations are typically connected (e.g., by landlines or microwave) to a radio network controller (RNC). The radio network controller, also sometimes termed a base station controller (BSC), supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural base stations connected thereto. The radio network controllers are typically connected to one or more core networks.
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile communication system, which evolved from the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and is intended to provide improved mobile communication services based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) access technology. UTRAN is essentially a radio access network providing wideband code division multiple access for user equipment units (UEs). The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP or “3G”) has undertaken to evolve further the predecessor technologies, e.g., GSM-based and/or second generation (“2G”) radio access network technologies
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a variant of a 3GPP radio access technology wherein the radio base station nodes are connected directly to a core network rather than to radio network controller (RNC) nodes. In LTE, in general functions of a radio network controller (RNC) node are performed by the radio base stations nodes. As such, the radio access network (RAN) of an LTE system has an essentially “flat” architecture comprising radio base station nodes without reporting to radio network, controller (RNC) nodes.
FIG. 1 illustrates a radio access network (RAN) environment which serves to illustrate, in consolidated fashion, the 3G, LTE, and 2G radio access technologies. The left portion of FIG. 1 provides a depiction of a 3G radio access situation in which a radio base station or NobeB is connected, to an radio network controller (RNC) in the radio access network (RAN), and the radio network controller (RNC) is connected to a SGSN node in the core network. The center portion of FIG. 1 provides a depiction of a LTE radio access situation in which a radio base station or eNodeB is connected to a access gateway (aGW) in the core network. The right portion of FIG. 1 provides a depiction of a 2G radio access situation in which a radio base station or base station transceiver is connected to base station controller (BCS) in the radio access network (RAN), and the base station controller (BCS) is connected to a SGSN node in the core network.
Typically, software and licenses germane to mobile network operation (e.g., operation of a radio access network (RAN)) are distributed to network elements from software and license server(s). In order to ease operation, these server(s) are generally centralized to operation centers, as shown in FIG. 1. Whenever a network element is to be upgraded with new software or a new license, the new software or license is downloaded from the software and license server(s). Within a mobile network the bulk of nodes requiring software update and/or distribution are typically the network elements delivering radio coverage, i.e. NodeB, eNodeB and BTS.
A trend in mobile network (e.g., radio access network (RAN)) operation is to minimize the number of nodes user traffic has to hop through before reaching the destination, either the B-part in a conversation or a service provider (if the call is an IP based call). As a consequence of this and other considerations, more functionality is transferred to the borders of the mobile network, in LTE to the gateways (GWs) and to the eNodeB. With this functional transfer to border nodes also comes more complex software and more licenses to distribute. Generally, the more complex the software, the more frequent are the software updates. As the eNodeB is a radio coverage delivering node, thus a bulk node, delivery of software from a central software server imposes a significant load increase on the central software servers.
Typically a radio base station is updated through the use of an Operational Support System (OSS). Through its Operational Support System (OSS) the operator typically selects the nodes to be updated from a list and initiates the upgrade of those nodes. Rather than upgrading the whole network in parallel, the software upgrades for the radio base station nodes are typically implemented by groups of radio base stations. Even when the software for upgrade radio base stations is upgraded in groups, the software upgrade involves interaction of the Operational Support System (OSS) with each radio base station.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/939,990, entitled “UPGRADING SOFTWARE IN RADIO BASE STATION NODES”, incorporated by reference herein, describes, e.g., operating a flat radio access network by grouping plural radio base stations into clusters; designating a master radio base station for a cluster; and, using the master radio base station to initiate (essentially in parallel) software upgrade of the radio base stations comprising the cluster.